What is the difference between education and training?

Schools and companies commonly use the word “Training” when actually all they are delivering is scholastic education. Our company clearly distinguishes between the two which increases our effectiveness and to differentiate what we deliver to customers (what most call students) from others like colleges. I thought it would be interesting to get this group’s members opinion on the difference between “Training” and “Education”, and to get group members thinking about it.

When asked the difference between education and training, a 4-star general replied…do you want your daughter to have sex training or sex education? Nearly everyone in the audience (1,000+) fell out of there seats. After the laughter subsided, the general went on to reply “fundamentally, education is focused on developing critical thinking skills (know why) that help enable creative solutions, whereas training is about developing specific skill sets (know how) for consistently reliable results.” That said, while there is a large grey area between training and education, per se, when does education stop and training begin, the outcome of both is learning. As a former Air Force flight instructor, I told my students they are educated in the aerodynamics of flight, but trained on how to fly.

I just finished reading The Eden Conspiracy: Educating for Accomplished Citizenship by Joe Harless (1998). He explains (p. 157): “Training and education are often differentiated by saying education is to provide knowledge for unpredictable circumstances; training is for predictable circumstances.”

He also states education is provided in school, (K-college) and training is provided after school (knowledge and skills provided on-the-job). Since Harless published this book, the delivery options of education and training has changed, thanks to the Internet. Education and training can occur anywhere, and without proper context, someone can mix the labels and confuse being trained for a specific task with being educated about something they can use to determine if they should use the task they’ve been trained on.